Trump steps up demand to annex Greenland but rules out using force

Donald Trump has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland in an extraordinary speech in Davos, but said the US would not use force to seize what he called the “big, beautiful piece of ice”.

Addressing thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in the Swiss ski resort, the US president said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”.

“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland,” he said. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”

Referring to the US record in the second world war as a justification for his demand, Trump told the global audience: “Without us, now you’d all be speaking German, or a little Japanese perhaps.”

He said Denmark had been overrun by Germany “after just six hours of fighting”, prompting the US to intervene “at great cost and expense”. He insisted that only the US was now fit to defend “this enormous, unsecured island”.

Trump said: “You need the ownership to defend it. You can’t defend it on a lease. Who the hell wants to defend a licence agreement, or a lease?”

At several points Trump appeared to confuse Greenland with Iceland, claiming “Iceland” had caused a drop in stock prices on Tuesday – when markets fell as a result of his threat to impose new tariffs on eight European countries.

Handing over Greenland to the US would not represent a threat to Nato, he said, praising its “excellent secretary general” and greeting Mark Rutte in the audience.

But Trump repeatedly returned to his argument that the US has had a raw deal from Nato, funding the protection of other European countries. “We give so much, and we get so little in return.”

He suggested that while the US was ready to defend Nato allies, this backing might not be returned. “We’re there for Nato 100%. I’m not sure if they’d be there for us.” Mutual defence is a founding principle of the transatlantic alliance.

In a rambling speech, the president also claimed to have delivered a historic economic upturn at home, and rejected the idea of what he called the “new green scam”, of switching from fossil fuels to clean energy.

“I want Europe to do great, I want UK to do great; they’re sitting on one of the greatest energy sources in the world and they don’t use it,” he said. “There are windmills all over Europe, there are windmills all over the place, and they are losers.”

He reeled off a list of what he said were US economic achievements over the first 12 months of his second term. These included what he called, “virtually no inflation”, falling petrol prices, and rapid economic growth.

The president claimed that under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, “we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

Trump arrived late in Switzerland on Wednesday, after an electrical fault on Air Force One forced him to switch planes, but cleared his diary to address the high-powered gathering on time.

The president’s threat at the weekend to slap punitive tariffs on eight European countries blamed for blocking his claim to Greenland has dominated discussions in Davos this week.

Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, used his Davos speech on Tuesday to warn mid-sized countries to unite in the face of US “coercion”. “Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he said.

Trump took direct aim at Carney in his speech, claiming that Canada had had “a lot of freebies” from the US. “Canada lives because of the US: remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.”

Carney was just one of a string of targets in the speech, which lasted well over an hour. These included Switzerland, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the outgoing Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, and the Somali-born congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

By contrast, Trump said he had a “very good relationship with [Russia’s] President [Vladimir] Putin and President Xi [Jinping of China].”